


forever and always

by Rigil_Kentauris



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: Brufonse Week 2019, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, i know right fluff? from me? less likely than you think, post post canon, technically modern AU?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 04:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20754113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rigil_Kentauris/pseuds/Rigil_Kentauris
Summary: “Once, a very long time ago, there was a beautiful kingdom called Askr. And it was ruled by its wise and generous prince, Alfonse. But, you see...there was a terrible problem in Askr. For one day, very much like this one, Alfonse’s best friend in all the land disappeared...”A little girl is woken up by a storm, and asks her papa for her favorite bedtime story.





	forever and always

**Author's Note:**

> Day One of Brufonse Week 2019! I'm holding myself back from screaming!  
prompt: childhood / **epilogue**  
<strike>i just realized that technically this is both huh</strike>

The child is crying angrily.

It’s not her fault, really. The lightning outside was furious; the thunder even more so. Storms of this size and intensity were rare this time of year, here, in this place. And without rain to pelt the windows and rattle the gutters, he can imagine it would be all the more frightening for his daughter.

He slips quietly into her room, and notices the small little blue bulb on her nightlight has blown. He should have unplugged it, but…

She spots him lit up by the hall light, and her wailing dies down immediately to a half-controlled sniffling. “Papa,” she says, and stretches out her chubby little hands.

“My fierce little dragonling,” he tells her, and acquiesces to her unvoiced demand. When he lifts her up, she burrows her head against his neck and proceeds to start snuffling against his nightshirt. Quietly. Just enough so she knows for _sure_ that she’s got his attention. So, he assesses, she’s more lonely than frightened. 

He rocks her. “Father is in the kitchen,” he tells her gently. “Almost certainly making cocoa, if we'd like to venture out.”

His daughter makes a horrible and silly face at him, and he find himself cracking a smile, though he ought not to. She hates the food here. It’s too sweet, for all three of them, really.

“Nnnoooo!” she adds. Then she pauses, and thinks for a moment. An essential part of this process, apparently, includes wiping her nose off on his shirt.

She thinks a little more, then nods. “Story,” she demands.

“Use your words,” he reminds her.

“I would like a story, _please,” _she cuts back quickly, precisely, with an edge that tells him she’s fully bounced back from _afraid_ and steamed right on to _annoyed._

“Very well,” he says. “I’ll have to tuck you back in, though.”

She nods. It still takes a second for her to relinquish her perch. When she’s all tucked in, though, she settles right down, and starts lightly smacking the covers with the flat of her hands.

“Story! Story!”

“Alright, alright!” He grins. “Let’s see…a story about an alligator?”

“No!” she cries.

“Hm.” He pretends to think. “What about…a story about chores?”

“Nooooo!”

“Well then…a story about-”

“Askr!” she interrupts, too impatient to play their usual game. He feigns surprise nonetheless.

“Now, what does a little one like you want to know about ancient history?”

“Stor-” she begins to shout, only to be rudely cut off my a massive flash of lightening, followed right after by thunder that seems to shake the house.

“-ry,” she finishes meekly. “Please.”

He smooths her hair down before giving her a reassuring kiss on the forehead. “Always.”

She stares up at him with adorably large, excited eyes. Everyday, he wakes up and fails to understand how he got so lucky as this. A life, a home…a partner who loves him, and a daughter who is every bit as smart, resilient, and kind as that partner. Everyday. And during moments like these, well…

He’d give everything in all of the worlds and whatever lay beyond for moments like these.

“Well,” he starts, dropping into his best Storytime Dad Voice. “Once, a very long time ago, there was a beautiful kingdom called Askr. And it was ruled by its wise and generous prince, Alfonse. But, you see...there was a terrible problem in Askr. For one day, very much like this one, Alfonse’s best friend in all the land _disappeared...”_

_\- _

The rain has finally arrived by the time his daughter's breathing evens out. He fixes her blankets, and watches for a second as she dreams on, unperturbed by all the swirling chaos in the world outside. He’s being watched, too, he knows, but not by his daughter.

The smile he has for his daughter is bright, pleased, sometimes forced but usually not. It’s more effort than he will ever let her know, sometimes.

The smile that he saves just for his husband is, compared to that, hardly noticeable at all. But, they both know. It's because that smile is never faked, in any way. Even those days when he’s trying to smile through tears, it’s real.

He’s beyond lucky. He thinks his sole existence may have broken luck itself apart.

“Alse,” he finally says, softly enough not to wake their daughter. Barely audible over the storm.

His partner’s voice is equally gentle, in the dark. “You were telling her about us again,” he observes, with a fondness in his tone that sends familiar hopeless aches through Zacharias’ heart.

“It’s her favorite story.”

“Mine too,” Alfonse says simply. After a moment, he adds. “I’ll be in the kitchen…will you join me?”

“Always,” Zacharias says. And it’s an oath, like it is every time. Like it has been, since the first day he swore to it.

Alfonse pads off down the hallway, his footsteps growing quiet, the sound joined a moment later by the clink of another mug being pulled out of a cabinet.

The rain carries on in the background. This, this here is Zacharias’ family. His home. His  _life._

His epilogue.

He’d never have imagined things could be this…this…

This.

He’d never have imagined things could be like this.

But…they are. And he’s going to appreciate every single second of it.

He kisses his daughter on the forehead on last time, before unplugging the broken nightlight and taking it with him. Electricity is hard to get used to, here in this new world, but he’ll figure it out.

For his family…for himself…

He can do it.

**Author's Note:**

> this is one of those fics where im like _'feel like if i had a beta they would have torn me to pieces and i would have just had to be like, 'you know what, thats fair' '_. anyway.  
guys i came this close to not tagging OR summarizing this i mean. what do you even do with this. suggestions? please feed me  



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